A thing I'd never noticed before they were all grouped together in one paragraph is how many songs that reference coffee are about regret and lost love. The coffee reference in "Good Year For The Roses", as well as the entirety of "Second Cup Of Coffee", "Black Coffee In Bed", and "Cigarettes & Coffee" all speak to the same kind of longing for what once was. George Jones sees his lost love in her lipstick mark on the coffee cup. Gordon Lightfoot is hoping (probably fruitlessly) that his second cup of coffee will steady his nerves and help him get through the day as he remembers his lost love. Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze is reminded of his lost love by the coffee stain on his notebook as he remembers the good times when he and his lover would laze in bed with a warm and comforting cup of coffee.
Otis Redding would seem to be the outlier here as "Cigarettes and Coffee" if you simply read the lyric sheet seems like a happy song. "I've known nothing but good old joy since I met you, darling", but the music is suffused with some deep deep longing. Musically it's got that same melancholy unresolved nature of songs like "Pain in My Heart" or "These Arms of Mine", as opposed to Otis's upbeat genuinely upbeat party jams like "Hard to Handle" or "Try A Little Tenderness". "Cigarettes and Coffee" is basically Otis's version of a previous "Good Ones" subject: Buck Owens's "Together Again". Otis sits at 3 AM chain smoking and pounding coffee with his lady love telling her how much she means to him and how happy she makes him and even proposing marriage precisely because he knows this happiness is fleeting. As the song fades away he pleads for one more cup of coffee and another cigarette because he knows as long as he's got those he can hold onto this moment for the duration of their consumption and stave off the regret and loss he knows is coming, potentially as soon as the sun rises on a new day.
Somehow coffee is the beverage of the loss of love. Who knew?
A thing I'd never noticed before they were all grouped together in one paragraph is how many songs that reference coffee are about regret and lost love. The coffee reference in "Good Year For The Roses", as well as the entirety of "Second Cup Of Coffee", "Black Coffee In Bed", and "Cigarettes & Coffee" all speak to the same kind of longing for what once was. George Jones sees his lost love in her lipstick mark on the coffee cup. Gordon Lightfoot is hoping (probably fruitlessly) that his second cup of coffee will steady his nerves and help him get through the day as he remembers his lost love. Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze is reminded of his lost love by the coffee stain on his notebook as he remembers the good times when he and his lover would laze in bed with a warm and comforting cup of coffee.
Otis Redding would seem to be the outlier here as "Cigarettes and Coffee" if you simply read the lyric sheet seems like a happy song. "I've known nothing but good old joy since I met you, darling", but the music is suffused with some deep deep longing. Musically it's got that same melancholy unresolved nature of songs like "Pain in My Heart" or "These Arms of Mine", as opposed to Otis's upbeat genuinely upbeat party jams like "Hard to Handle" or "Try A Little Tenderness". "Cigarettes and Coffee" is basically Otis's version of a previous "Good Ones" subject: Buck Owens's "Together Again". Otis sits at 3 AM chain smoking and pounding coffee with his lady love telling her how much she means to him and how happy she makes him and even proposing marriage precisely because he knows this happiness is fleeting. As the song fades away he pleads for one more cup of coffee and another cigarette because he knows as long as he's got those he can hold onto this moment for the duration of their consumption and stave off the regret and loss he knows is coming, potentially as soon as the sun rises on a new day.
Somehow coffee is the beverage of the loss of love. Who knew?